WA Technology

www.NetWelding.com DO NOT COPY without Permission Page 1

Copyright by WA Technology 2010: Welding Math (and some physics) By Jerry Uttrachi

Understanding what causes a MIG wire to melt and what controls weld penetration is very helpful in producing quality weld deposits and solving welding problems. The relationship of gas pressure and volume is helpful in setting shielding gas flow and eliminating gas waste. Bernoulli developed these gas equations in the 17 hundreds and Torricelli in the 1630s understood the basic properties of gases. The flow rates that cause turbulence in a MIG shielding gas stream must be know n and avoided for quality MIG shielding. Reynolds in the late 18 hundreds defin ed the flow rate that produces turbulence. John Dalton in the early 18 hundreds defined that the pressure of gas mixtures is an addition of the pressure of the individual gases. The implication for welding is if shielding gas leaks from a hose or fitting, air and moisture are flowing back through that same hole. When asked to make a 3/16 versus a 1/4 inch fillet weld fractions must be unders tood. Or if told the fillet weld specification indicates a 5 mm size is needed, a conversion to US units may be necessary. The information in the report is useful to welding students, welders wishing to advance to welding technicians, welding robot operators, welding foremen, etc. It presents some welding math and physics and discusses how to use the informati on. Most of these topics are on our web site or in PDF Downloads available on o ur web site - in most cases, more detail is presented. Where this additional in formation is available a web site link is provided so it may be readily accessed . About the Author Jerry Uttrachi is President of WA Technology, a company he founded in 1999 dedic ated to helping companies improve welding productivity and specializing in products and techniques to elim inate shielding gas waste. Mr. Uttrachi started his career in the welding field 46 year ago in welding R&D at the Linde Division of UCC, a leading company developing welding shielding gases, equipment and filler metals. After managing the companies Material Technology Laboratory developing welding shielding gases and filler met als he became Director of Welding Market Development. When the welding division became a separate company he was named Vice President of Marketing for the newly formed company, L-TEC. He was responsible for Business/Product Management, Marketing, Customer/Technical Service, Special Customer Order Produc tion, Training and

Communications. When the business was acquired by ESAB in 1989 he remained in th at position for the L-TEC brand and for ESAB's Equipment business. In 1999 he left to form WA Technology. Mr. Uttrachi is an active volunteer of The American Welding Society having serve d on numerous volunteer committees including recently being on the AWS Board as Director at Large, three years as Vice President and the 2007 President of the 65,000 member Society. He currently is the Chairman of th e Board of Trustees for the Societies Education Foundation. He is also a member of ASME and is Chairman of his local Section. Mr. Uttrachi has Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering, a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering (Emphasis Behavior of Metals) and a Masters degree in Engineering Management fro m the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He has 9 patents in the welding field, with 4 issued in the past 6 y ears related to reducing shielding gas waste and improving weld start quality. He has published a number of articles i n technical trade publications and journals. WA Technology Copyright by WA Technology 2010: Topics covered: Topic Page What is Covered A 2 Why Do We Need Math to Weld? B 2 What Makes MIG W ire Melt? C 3 Effect of Welding Current on Weld Penetration D 4 Effect of Gas Pr essure on Gas Volume E 5 How to Read a Ruler (with information on working with f ractions and common metric conversions) F 11 Calculate Shielding Gas Waste; (dea ling with percentage) G 14 Reynolds Laminar versus Turbulent Flow H 15 Dalton Pa rtial Pressure (gas leaking out of a shielding gas hose means moisture laden air is flowing back in!) I 16 Calculate Weld Volume J 19 Calculate Weld Cooling Rat e Topic A: Why Do We Need Math? To become a highly skilled welder it is desirable to understand some welding mat h and basic welding physics. It is presented here in a way that doesnt make it p ainful! It Could Be Tougher: Imagine trying to do math in Roman Numerals! Actua lly addition is not a big problem you just put all the letters together and rati onalize extra letters denoting numbers; for example if you have three V (5s) they would be restated as XV for 10 and 5. However division is much more difficult and a Roman Calculator called a Counting Board is needed. Pebbles are placed in numb ered boxes etc. As for fractions, the Romans didnt have a way to write them as n umbers. They would state fractions in words, for example as in the case of a ru ler defining 3/16; three of 16 parts. In fact maybe they made understanding fract ions easier - they just said what they represented; divide a unit in 16 parts and count only 3 of them! You can Google Roman Numeral math if interested. www.NetWelding.com DO NOT COPY without Permission Page 2

Topic B: What Causes MIG Welding Wire to Melt? Hint: this is what it is NOT; a) the hot arc, b) radiation from the arc or c) the wire passing through the arc. Two phenomena are primarily responsible for wire melting: 1. The first reason is wire stickout. As the wire passes from the end of the MI G gun contact tip to the arc, it is carrying all the welding current and becomes very hot. It starts at room temperature and can exceed 500 degrees F before th e arc forms at the end (depending on the "sickout," the distance between the tip and the work piece.) 2. The second reason it melts is that current leaving or entering a surface, be it wire or hot puddle, requires a given amount of energy for the electrons to en ter or leave that surface. This energy, generated at the surface, melts the alr eady hot wire. Therefore assuming Electrode Positive this is referred to as Ano de Potential (also called Work Function and measures as voltage) and is equal to the Amps x Anode Voltage. The following equation obtained from Reference (1) page 3, defines the relations hip: Wire Melting Rate (lbs/hr) = a * Amps + b * Wire Stickout * Amps 2 Where "a" and "b" are constants and "Wire ch contact tip to the work piece measured modified to compensate for the fact that Extension that is measured to the top of Stickout" is the distance from the tor in inches. (Note, constant b has been this equation was based on "Electrode the arc.)

The values for "a" and "b" for 0.035 inch diameter carbon steel wire are: a = 0.017; b = 0.00014 WA Technology www.NetWelding.com DO NOT COPY without Permission Page 3 Amps) i

Copyright by WA Technology 2010:

These two energy sources cause the wire to melt. The first term (a * s the anode voltage times

current and the second term defines the energy input due to resistance heating. Topic C: EFFECT OF CURRENT ON PENETRATION A major implication of the wire melting relationship is with increased stickout (at a fixed wire feed speed) amperage will decrease. That has a significant eff ect on another parameter, weld penetration. Weld penetration can be determined by a simple equation defined some years ago b y C. E. Jackson in Reference (2) Weld Penetration (distance into the base material when making a weld on plate me asured in inches) = K [Amps 4 / (Weld Travel Speed; ipm * Volts 2)]0.333 For 0.035 inch diameter solid carbon steel wire, the constant K = 0.0019 Using these equations we find the following when we change wire stickout for 0.0 35 inch solid wire. Assuming a fixed wire feed speed that produces 200 amps at 3/8 inch wire stickout:

Stickout, inches Amps Penetration inches % Loss in Penetration 3/8 200 .127 base 1/2 184 .114 11% 5/8 172 .104 18% 3/4 162 .096 24% 7/8 154 .090 29% Note: 1. With a fixed wire feed speed the amperage decreased from 200 amps with a 3/8 inch stickout to a low of 154 amps when the stickout was increased to 7/8 inches . The resistance heating of the wire (the 2nd Amp 2 term in the equation) is a very efficient heating process. Therefore the current needed to finish melting the wire as it enters the arc, becomes less as the wire is hotter with longer st ickout. 2. However there is a reduction in weld penetration when varying stickout in a n ormal range from 3/8 to 3/4 inches is 24%! If extended to 7/8 inches penetratio n decreases 29%. Therefore it is very important to keep the torch stickout constant. Also the sh orter the distance from tip to work for a fixed wire feed speed the greater the penetration since current also increases. When welding in the short circuiting mode it is often desirable to use a long contact tip which protrudes from the sh ielding gas cup. This helps assure adequate penetration is maintained by keepin g current higher. It also helps visibility so the welder can stay on the leadin g edge of the weld puddle. Weld Penetration Definition For the purposes of this exercise, weld penetration is a measure of how deep the weld penetrates in a bead-on-plate deposit. Have a different wire than the 0.03 5 inch solid wire used in this example? No problem. In fact not only changes i n wire type and size but also shielding gas and torch angle will alter the actua l value. You can generate your own constant K for what you are doing by making a bead-on-plate deposit, cutting a cross section and etching it. References: 1. AWS Welding Handbook, Volume 1, 9 th Addition; pp 7 2. The Science of Arc Welding by C. E. Jackson. 1960 Welding Journal 39(4) pp 129s thru 230-s See more Information at: http://netwelding.com/Welding_Math.htm